Idris Elba, Will Smith & More Actors Of Color Shut Out Of Oscar Nods

For the second year in a row, actors of color were snubbed of Oscar nominations. From Idris Elba to Michael B. Jordan to Benicio Del Toro, here are the black actors and more actors of color that should have gotten recognized by the Academy this year.

Seriously? In all of the acting categories for this year’s Oscar nominations, not a single actor of color was nominated. Michael B. Jordan, Idris Elba, Will Smith and the entire Straight Outta Compton cast wowed fans and critics, but the Academy shut these black actors and other actors of color out completely.

Michael was completely shut out of an acting nomination for his role alongside Sylvester Stallone in Creed. He stunned us all in his brilliant and very physical portrayal of Apollo Creed’s son. This is the second time Michael’s been robbed of an Academy Award nomination — he was snubbed for 2013’s Fruitvale Station.

Idris Elba is another actor of color to be snubbed of an Oscar nomination. He was unbelievably captivating as the Commandant in the Netflix film. Will Smith and Gugu Mbatha-Raw were also completely overlooked for their powerhouse performances in Concussion.

Straight Outta Compton’s entire cast didn’t nab one single acting nomination for the powerful film. The critically-acclaimed movie only got one nomination — Original Screenplay for Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge and Alan Wenkus. Ironically, they are all white.

This is the second year in a row that actors of color didn’t receive major acting nominations. Two years ago, Lupita Nyong’o walked away with the Oscar for her supporting role in 12 Years A Slave. The movie also won Best Picture. It’s shocking how the lack of diversity has grown in two years.

“Of course I am disappointed, but this is not to take away the greatness (of the films nominated).This has been a great year in film, it really has across the board,” Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said, according to our sister site Deadline. “You are never going to know what is going to appear on the sheet of paper until you see it,” she told me, while acknowledging the Academy’s very public efforts at diversity are moving too slowly. “We have got to speed it up.”

HollywoodLifers, were your favorite actors of color snubbed? Let us know! Click HERE to watch all the trailers for your favorite movies!